Offseason Program Mailbag Questions

questions via Twitter. You right in with your thoughts and questions and we flesh them out here on the podcast. Mostly football today, so not a lot of television or better call saw whatever. We're gonna talk about a lot of Dolphins stuff in there. From somewhere in South Florida.

This is the Drivetime Podcast Miami Dolphins. So when I recorded this episode, I was in South Florida, but now as you're hearing it, I'm back in the Pacific Northwest and I found a beach front condo for two hundred and fifty dollars a night in Lincoln City on the Organ Coast, which is the region that my wife and I hope to one day retire to someday, hopefully if you've not been to the Organ Coast, I cannot recommend it enough and maybe nostalgia plays a role there, but

I just think it's the best place on earth in the summertime. That's where I'm gonna be for a week late in June. But for now, we are in the central part of Washington State, seeing families, seeing friends, and soaking up some not so humidly hot summer days. But let's go ahead and get to the flavor of the hour. You guys wrote in with your questions. I have the answers, at least I think I do, and I want to do as many of these as we can. I believe there is twenty one in there. I'm hoping to get

to as many of those as they possibly can. And we start here from at Yo SOI to a Papa great Twitter name what would be deemed a successful SEASONO Miami Dolphins. I'm gonna go back to what Coach McDaniel said in the fish Tank, because I think he said it best there and I've been saying, you know, something similar. I'm not gonna say anywhere close to the level of Coach McDaniel, but something similar since really twenty nineteen and

even before that. I mean it's process over results because, as coach said, so many variables can go against you in this game. Whether it's just lucky things that have happened, like a missed field goal, a bounce of the football in a punt, a call you might not agree with the wrong holding call to take a big play off the board. What if you finally get the defensive look you've been hoping for to exploit all game long, and someone gets an early start, false start and you never

see that look again. There are so many variables that play into the results in this game. It's a very fine it's a fine line between victory and defeat. When you only have seventeen games, those records and playoff berths can be fleeting, they can be not lucky, but there can be things that happen that don't necessarily tell you

which team was better or worse. So to me, competing consistently showing growth in areas that you need to show growth and showing this offense can match the personnel that was acquired to Ron Armstead to re kill Cedric Wilson Jr. You guys get growth at quarterback. Look we know the narratives out there, how nice would it be to get the offense humming at a level that those daily debates are looked back upon in a year from now and mocked.

That's that would be great for me personally. And then with the defense, well, if they play like we know they're capable of, then I think everything takes care of itself there. So a successful season to me equals similar defensive production, a jump from the offense, some tangible growth at the quarterback position. Those would be great successes and the results of that if that process plays out, well,

you think it would be pretty good too. But I don't think it's fair to say the final result is necessarily who you are, like you are what your record

says you are. I've never agree with that, because we talked about this and like a lot of the wins that year were you know, opponent opponent's missing field goals or just things of that nature, or even you know, even last year some of the bounces that went against the Dolphins three straight walk off field goals, and then that in those three games the Dolphins missed their own field goals, just things that you know, you play sixty

minutes of football it comes down to a kick. I'm not gonna, you know, disown the left guard because the field goal didn't go in. You know what I mean. It makes sense so process over results. But I think those things about the offense showing growth, defense showing you similar production, and getting a really good definitive answer at quarterback would be great signs of growth in a good season.

At Paul con McGuire. Rebuilds don't happen overnight, Travis, And with so many new players and skill possessions on offense, what are the chances of making the playoffs this season? Well, the Dolphins need to lean on the defense the first six to eight games of the year until the offense can reach its full potent. Chill. It's a good question, and I wouldn't call it a rebuild because I think

that began back in twenty nineteen. And you can look at how far the roster has come since that nineteen roster where you set a record for most players used U d F as guys off the street, you know, coming and signing on Tuesday, playing on Sunday. And now where the roster is with cornerstone pieces, quality starters, adequate starters, good depth, good balance of youth and veteran players and how successful this team has been since that time at

utilizing the resources that came from that undertaking. Since that time, you've hit on draft picks, you've acquired good young talent, you have cornerstone players up and down the roster, and then your idea, Paul about the defense kind of carrying the way early on. That would have been probably preferable last year because the one is heaven start. The defense

wasn't playing like we know it can. And it could be that way, It's possible, but it could also be the McDaniels version of his offensive system that he talks about, right Like, we know the system that he from. He talks about working in that system for seventeen years. But it's gonna have a McDaniel twist on it, McDaniel flavor on it. Maybe that little wrinkle or flavor is a bit of a shock to the rest of the NFL, and it takes them four or five games to catch

up to the Dolphins offense. You just never know. That's why we watch, right. I can't freaking wait for this football season. It should be a lot of fun at Born Frown. What a great name that is who looks most improved out of the young offensive lineman. Well, it's tough to really get a beat for me without pads on,

and really at practice in general. I mean, I'm sure if I had the tape and could get to the tight copy the end zone behind the play copy and run back each place several times, I could tell you, hey, look, seventy four is consistently getting the strike zone with his punch, or sixty eight is doing an excellent job of coming off the ball with a low pad level. Seventy three is really moving out there and hitting his blocks in space in a controlled manner. But I don't have that.

And that said, Ikenberg's name has come up next to a lot of the second and level runs in my O t A notebooks I have. I think he can really play with some power on the phone booth and turn guys out and his his his traits transition to I think a lot of positions on the offensive line, but in particular inside I think where the biggest advantage is is just understanding the art of offensive line play.

Like you go back to his college tape and the scouting reports, super high floor total technician rarely beat by counter moves. I think Liam has has had a nice spring camp so far, and just because I want to make it perfectly known, I think Rob Hunt is a very, very very good player, and I think we've seen that so far through his first two years here and into spring CAMPO. Next question from at I, sweetheart, currently, who is your under the radar player? That's tough. I think

there are some good options based upon them. Maybe the national coverage is for this team, right, Like Zack Seeler, for instance, is an incredible player. We know that, but does John in Oklahoma? Does Joe and South Dakota know about that? Or? Shoot, there was a weakest per position per team article out there this spring or earlier the spring that talked about the Dolphins safety is being a position they had to address. It was the weakest position on the team. Well, then I'd like to introduce you

to Javon Holland because that's laughable. Let's do it from the Dolphins fan perspective, though, if you're on this podcast, you know all about Javon Holland and Zach Seler. So I'm gonna take receiver Trent Sherfield. I think he's gonna give you fifteen and twenty special team snaps every game and give you insane effort on those. He's gonna run his routes on offense in a way that best helps open up space and create chances for either himself or

his teammates. And I think he's an exceptional, exceptional run blocker. The impact guys like him and Eric and Zoo Kama could have down on the red zone in the running game, I think could be a big boon that not a lot of folks are talking about heading into the season. Next question from at Ricardo bunch of numbers, He asks how concerned should we be with the offense is not

fully clip king right now? Not at all, not at all. Also, we have seen a lot of things click on offense, Like I guess my question would be, where have you heard that from? Because consider the source, I'm not entirely sure I agree with the idea in the first place. But the defense has won their days, the offense has had their's, the offense has hit a bunch more explosives, and the run game looks blocked up pretty good more often than not than a year ago, I would say.

But still man not to go full iverson here, but it's practice practice. I remember a great quote from I think it was Keenan Allen from the Chargers, but I could be wrong there, but he talked about evaluating practices for some grand takeaway is a very risky proposition when you're considering the outside source, like not about players and

coaches who were doing it. And that's in training camp much less o t a s when you're in shorts and shells installing basic principles of your offense and defense. We talked about He talked about I should say how different guys have different goals at various stages of the off season. The veteran might be working on something new that requires him to take some lumps before he perfects it, Like when you fix your golf swing. It's not pretty in the beginning, but when you get the result on tour,

that's what you see. Right. Maybe a rookie is doing the same thing, trying to get his technique to go from what his college coaches asked him to do to what his pro coaches asked him to do. This does feel like an age old question. Is it good for the defense when they play well or is it bad for the offense and the defense plays well a little bit of both vice versa on that. My final point is that sweating what happens on a football field in May and June, it's not healthy if you are. I

go back to the early recommendation. Just go ahead and go outside, touch some grass, and enjoy the summertime. All right, let's go ahead and take our first break. Will come back on the other side with more of your questions here on the Drivetime Twitter Mailbag edition of the podcast, your host Travis Wingfield, brought to you by Auto Nation. Back here on a Friday edition of the Drive Time podcast, answering your questions via the Twitter mail bag. We are

brought to you by Auto Nation. I am your host, Travis Wingfield, and we pick it back up here from the Twitter mailbag. I put the call out for questions. You guys right in with your answers. We talked about them here. Your questions, I should say, my answers on the podcast at not Underscore, Mr Underscore Delecto, who are your top three off the radar breakout candidates mentioned this a little bit earlier, but I think the term breakout

does make this question difference. We'll go ahead and take it. I'm taking big rob Hunt for one of them. I think his skill set matches what this system can ultimately do for him. And he talked about playing under Billy Napier at u L University of Louisiana Lafayette UH in an offense that really prioritized spacing, athletic ability outside zone UH, some vertical sets, things that are going to happen in

the spaced out offense. Two things I think can that he can do and has shown he can do are those two things getting out in space, controlled duo combo blocks, climbing to that second level. I like this scheme change

for him a lot. Jalen Phillips is my second guy. No. He talked about or he had the eight and a half sacks last year, and you go back and listen to the fish Tank episode with Chillan Phillips on it, you'll hear him talk about how much he thinks he can grow and trying to be a guy that can be on the field for all three downs, you know, on any given particular series. He's been damn good in

the off season program. I think the pressure numbers and the pass rush kind of arsenal got rat ratcheted up last year, late in the season, I think he can continue that and put it all together and really take off in your number two and man, I feel like we could do ten players here, because yeah, there's a lot of them. But I'll just go ahead and take Well, you said off the radar, so that removes Waddle Holland probably Phillips too, but already talked about him, so it's

too late. Two was not off the radar. That would be my number one pick. Let's go ahead and do Brandon Jones. He talked about getting better at every area of his game the last time we spoke to him, and was even asked about shaking this idea of being you're just a blitzing safety, right. That's not accurate. It does a lot more than that. And I go back to his Texas tape when he was very good and a lot of coverage roles. They're playing that slot star position,

off coverage, press coverage, rotating into his own. I think you'll see his entire game take another step this year, especially as he in Holland keep getting more and more time together, like that play against the Ravens where he strung out the jet sweep too. I think it was Devin Duvernet and just basically kept him behind the line so Holland could scrape around and make that play in the backfield. There's a lot to that on Brandon Jones's tape, So it's a lot more than just blitzing for him

at MERSA Nova. What was the Porters signing all about? What do you see his fits or attributes to the team as sure? Yeah, I'd love to talk about that. He was a nightmare at USC. I remember that he definitely ruined a ten and two season. Didn't ruin this season, but he ruined one of the two losses the Cooks had that year when they went on to beat Oklahoma

State in the Alamo Bowl. That season lost in like week number three to USC and then the Apple Cup, which we lose every year except for this last year. Go Coog's. But he had to play in that game where he had put a pressure on Gardner Minshew that forced incomplete pass. I still think his hands were up high to the helmet, but I digress because he was all over the backfield that game. I remember that, remember

him being that nightmare for opposing teams. Every time I watched USC play back and before that, He's got a great combination of build and speed. Look at his relative athletics scorecard nine point six seven. That's out of ten in the green categories, the elite categories, the ninety percent tile of your position group. He was in that category, and the shuttle, the three cone, the bench, the vertical jump.

Really good agility for a linebacker. He's got seven hundred forty nine career snaps on defense as a prow pressures on four hundred and twenty pass rush reps, which is one for every eight or nine pass rush snaps. Not too bad. Twenty four run stops on three eighteen rundown reps. He only played eleven snaps in coverage, so off the edge come after the quarterback has had a hard edge in the running game. He did give Cleveland a hundred and five snaps over the final four games of last year,

so he's played some football here recently. His greatest impact has been on specialty though two hundred and thirty three snaps in his career, and his pro football focus great has improved each of the three years on special teams, culminating in a score over seventy, which is a quality production score. But you go back to his scouting report. First step explosiveness pops off the tape and that's not just athletically. He plays with this certain level of fire

and intensity. If you just go back to the college tape, I'd have to pop on the pro tape to give you the same level of analysis there. But he is a master at clean up sacks. When it comes to effort, and we do talk about what are we talking about, I should say this defense does here all the time right like create chances, set picks. Being part of a selfless rush lane, integrity pass rush plan that doesn't always pay off your effort in terms of the sack numbers.

You have to be very selfless. Coach Austin Clark. Tyrone McKenzie is talked about two since his arrival, but Austin Clark worked with both linebackers and defensive line over the last couple of years, and he has talked about how this is the most selfless group he's ever been a part of. You have to be willing to basically go

set the pick for the pick and roll right. And Gustin as a prospect was great at redirecting and find the football and cleaning up broken place and when you run rush games up front and you have great lockdown caybrads on the back side, there's gonna be a lot of those opportunities. So maybe as a sub package rusher he can come in and make an impact that way.

He shocks guys in the running game with a hard edge, a very strong punch that helps him control that outside arm, stay on the upfield shoulder and make a play that way. And the last thing, and I picked this up from researching him, was that he has a very legendary workout slash nutritional plan where he eats ten thousand calories a day.

He's always eating quick digestion. He works his butt off because I guess he was a in The word that I saw in the article was scrawny, A scrawny high schooler who wound up at six ft two sixty five pounds by the time he was done at USC You know what, I went ahead and tweeted the link out on my timeline just now, so I go ahead and check that out. The story on Porter gust and how he had to work to get himself into football shape

and eventually become a pfessional football player. Let's go ahead and go here to at thought smasher who would win in a fight one medium sized grizzly bear or Ray Kwan Davis. Well, unlike Dwight Shrewd, I do not have a catalog of bare knowledge at my disposal. I do know that grizzlies are the biggest, most ferocious of the bears, so maybe I do Black bears are definitely not best, But I think we've gotta take the grizzly here because of the advantage of claws and teeth, right, that's really it.

Bare hands for Rake one equipped hands and abiding mechanism for the bear, because I think strength, length and size is all pretty comparable. And that's sounds funny, but it's probably not that far off. You put a bear through the combine. Can he change directions like ray Juan Davis. Can he take on a lead blocking fullback like ray Kuan Davis? Can he eat up a double team like ray Kuan Davis? Can he uh pinch and condense and stack and shed and get off blocks like Rake je Davis?

I don't think so. So I think that if you removed the aspect of the claws and teeth, we have a fair right, but otherwise not very fair that's your bare analysis here. Let's go ahead and take our last break. We have two more questions here on the Twitter mailbag. Your host, Travis Wingfield Drive Time Podcast brought to you by Auto Nation. Back here on the Friday edition of the Drivetime Podcast. My name is Travis Wingfield. I am your host, and we have a lot to get to

this summer. We're gonna preview every possession group. We're gonna do some coaches audio, some analysis, some stats to get you guys ready for training camp, which if you have not done so in the past, highly recommend coming out to practice and watching these guys get after it. It's my favorite time with the football calendar. You can't lose games. You're gonna be evaluated football. You get a watch football for a couple of hours. It's a lot of fun.

So come on out to training camp and get ready with your training camp preview series up on Miami Dolphins dot Com as well here on the Drivetime Podcast, and I'll take you right up into the regular season and

then we're full go ahead into two. It's almost here, But first a couple more questions before those Training Camp Preview podcast, where we also will take a look at the entire NFL, division by division and talk to some other team's gotta get to know everyone else, because if you don't have knowledge of the other thirty one teams, you can't properly assess your own team. At showtime, Underscore Miami asks how's the progress of the offensive line so

far compared to this time last year? First of all, showtime, what's up? Man? He does a lot of Twitter spaces out there, and they're always informative and most of all hard to find. This respectful check him out at showtime, Underscore m i A and check out his Twitter spaces. I mentioned earlier the pockets that have been afforded to the quarterback for for Tua and Teddy and Skyler to help them load up and shoot the ball down the field. Those media intermediate rips as well. I think that's been

a big positive. You know, this time of year, with the way practices are not full contact, but there have been some nice rips where the back gets to the second level quote unquote, untouched, not ackled, not tagged off. So I think that's a good start. We can't wait for training camp because we'll get more and more information as we go along. Next one here from at Reuben A Reuben Ramirez, what was to us third down efficiency compared to other quarterbacks. So I'm glad you asked. I

have some more information. I planned to get to later on this offseason talking about two US third down ranks because I think it shows up consistently and he shines in that regard. But he was fifth in the National Football League among all quarterbacks in converting third downs this year. And you look at the other quarterbacks and the successes they had terms in terms of under pressure running game support to a really showed out well among all those quarterbacks.

And those quarterbacks you're talking about are the Patrick mahomes Is, the Josh Allen's, the Tom Brady's, the Joe Burrows of the world. So not bad company. Last one here at Murray C. Eight nine. How many pieces do you phil the Dolphins are away from a Super Bowl shot? Or are they already there on paper? And then Chris corrected himself from a misspelling. And I love what you did here from my friend because in my main group chat, every time we mess up something, we corrected the same

way you did. You misspelled pieces, and after that you replied and said pieces Comma even like oh yeah, even pieces like yeah, that that one too, Let's go ahead and add that. So well done on that. And you know, I think it's a very loaded but fair loaded question. All thirty two teams are playing for a championship, like everybody has the goal to go to the Super Bowl. I remember Joe Marino of the Draft Network and he previewed the offensive line for us talking about teams and

their life cycles. Different teams are at different stages, right Like last year the Lions, you know, they the roster was not ready to compete in the way that the

Buccaneers was or the Rams. And we saw the Rams approach mid season trades of Odell Beckham and Von Miller accordingly right, and the Dolphins aggressiveness this offseason to go get Tyreek Hill for a big draft, trade to Hron Armstead for a big contract, Melvin ingram lay in the process to go get Sony Michelle, Raheem Mostert and Chase Edmunds, to add Cedric Wilson in addition to Tyreek Hill, to get Connor Williams in addition to to Ron Armstead. I

think that shows you where they believe. The recent drafts of this team have taken this roster ready to compete right now. I mean, look at your roster in terms of the talent descriptors, cornerstones, right, We've got them vets and young players alike. You round out a group of Xavien Howard and Tyree Hill and to Ron Armstead late twenties, early thirties, sure fire blue chip cornerstone players. You know what, those guys are got a pretty damn good feeling. I

know exactly what. Javon Holland, Jalen Waddle, Christian Wilkins, Jalen Phillips more cornerstone pieces. I know I'm gonna get with those guys. There are quality starters all over the roster who are on the verge of that cornerstone recognition, right and maybe they already are there. There's lots of guys in this team that really have upside and really have proven roster or proven a resume. I should say there's depth.

So I think that Chris Career, Mike McDaniel, the entire staff recognized this and thought we are a competitive team right now, let's go ahead and add some more firepower. I also think every team in the league has at least one position group to kind of go back to your question about where that addition could be made that they look at and say that could potentially being achilles heel. But then from there it's how do we minimize that potential impact? How do we mask that perceived weakness? Can

we help that group out. Let's say it's at a tackle position and you want to bring a tight end or running back into chip and help and find a way to cut guys down. Like I go back to that teen Bears game, right, Khalil Mack did nothing. A big part of that was Larmie Tunsel, but also a big part of that was the help they gave Tunsil and then Juwan James when he flipped over to that

side of the formation. Like, you can find ways to attack the opposing team strength and two and this wasn't a weakness to Dolphins team, but to help cover up your weaknesses, because when it's Khalil Mac against anybody, that's a weakness. Let's go ahead and help it out. The nice part about Miami's roster is even if there is a group like that, the depth really at every spot would afford you a potential solution. Like a player a isn't getting the job done. There's a player bet right

behind that guy that you're you're intrigued about him. And that's really what every team's approaches right attempt to just get your roster from from player one all the way to player in ninety as strong as it possibly can be, and improve in certain areas, whether you need to improve upon, you know your potential age at the position, injuries, contracts, situation, scheme fits, There's so much that goes into it, and how the thing that stands out about the Dolphins roster

to me is the fact that there's depth and you do have that kind of backing support of we feel confident about the makeup of that group opposed to just one or two individuals and really just about every single room. So next year, two picks in the first round, the rest of the draft class all into more cat flexibility.

I'm not sure I have an exact answer to your question, Chris, but I think they've done a great job to put themselves in a position to win right now, but also inflexible positions to attack their perceived weaknesses in any given off season. And look at this offseason, right we knew the receiver room needed some help. We knew the offensive line needed help. Tyreek Hill and Toront Armstead are arguably the best receiver and best let tackle in the National

Football League. So really good job there, and I have to imagine that continues. All right, let's get the heck out of here. The next time I talk to you will be Tuesday, I believe, and we're gonna start the positional previews and go division by division and preview the entire NFL season. I can't wait for that. My favorite thing about summer is going to the beach or the

pool and reading preseason content magazines or books. I used to memorize everyone's roster through the Pro Football Weekly season preview. I would go on jogs and I would restarte the starting lineup and the key impact players in my head. On those jogs actually help the run go by easier. Keep your mind busy. My go to these days is the War and Sharp season previews. I'll be reading that as long as Caroline does not bug me too much poolside or each side this summer. Please send any summer

reading recommendations my way. I'll go ahead and do the same. We are less than a month away from my favorite part of this summer, the Better Call Saul final six episodes and again, unless Caroline impeded on the plane, I will have finished my complete series. Rewatch on that flight all right, so that we'll break There is gonna be my time. You all please be sure to subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcast, Leave us a rating, leave us a review. You can follow me on Twitter at

Wingfield NFL. You can follow the team across all social channels at Miami Dolphins. Check out the fish Tank podcast with Seth and o J coach Mike McDaniel. Dobe into the Tank this week will also cover that on a podcast on Drivetime that you heard on Wednesday, as well as the Twitter spaces show. Check us out there as well. Check out the YouTube channel for media availabilities and the fish Tank and Drivetime episodes, and last but not least, my Me dolphins dot com. Until next time finds up

Caroline Daddy's He's going home, Maybe camp too. H